Chapter 4

AnushkhaA

@AnushkhaA

Chapter 4

Three months later...

Pallavi smiled at the little girl while she handed her the plate of food which comprised of a dish made of vegetable pulao and kheer. Raavi grinned at the fair skinned and bejewelled woman who seemed to have directly conjured of a fairy-tale it seemed to her. She was the one serving all of them today instead of him. Though Raavi missed him but she was excited when Praniti akka told them their Anna's wife would be coming today instead of him.

Everyone here at the orphanage wanted to meet with the beautiful stranger they have only heard about. She looked up at the woman's pretty face and her smile wavered. People generally don't give too much credit to them but children are very good observers. Raavi noticed though she had a bright smile on her face, her gorgeous grey brown eyes were sad. She was in pain. 

"Didi... why are you sad?"

Pallavi looked at the little girl startled. She quickly masked her initial shock with another brittle smile and the deep sorrow in her eyes went a bit deeper into her brown irises presumptuously trying to hide itself more properly. 

"I am not sad sweetheart. Just worried... run along now. Your food will get cold."

"Didi, why didn't Anna come with you?"

Raavi instantly wished she could retract back her words. For a girl of merely ten, Raavi was quite a precocious child. She understood this illogical desire adults had of appearing cheerful in front of kids even though they are feeling far from it. As was the case here. But with her unthinking words she saw something break inside her Anna's wife's eyes. She wanted to hug her. 

Pallavi cleared her throat and mustered up her failing strength admirably. 

"Your Anna is unwell dear. So he sent me here instead. Don't worry he will be fine. And next time we'll come together and you can scold him for falling ill okay?"

She patted Raavi's head and stood up fluidly gathering the ends of her shimmering beige gold pallu. The mogra flowers in her hair sent a sweet fragrance in the Autumn air in the mid afternoon as she arranged the pleats of her beige gold kanjeeveram silk before walking towards the farthest corner of the garden. She could see the happy faces of the kids eating the food distributed to them and their delighted chatter hung in the air above. Pallavi felt a strange pang in her heart. She loved children, had always adored them and she knew by now so did her husband. She thought whether they would ever have children of their own. Will she ever see the gummy smile of a baby and hear the anklets ring as she chased behind plump feet as their laughter rang in the halls of their home?

The sharp tang of salt hit her eyes and she discreetly wiped it before it could fall and ruin her precariously put mascara. She could see Farhaad and Harish standing guard a respectable distance away but very much on their toes. they would descend upon her if they find her crying again. God knows, she has scared them enough for a lifetime.

But what could she do? Some days however hard she tried she would fall back into that crushing despair. She missed her husband. She missed his arms around her, she missed hearing his heart beat its rhythm underneath her cheek, she missed his soft kisses on the planes of her face, she missed inhaling that faint smell of nutmeg, oak and spices of his shampoo. She just missed him.

The doctors were giving her no hope as days and weeks melded together into months. His body was refusing to heal itself. There was a strong resist somewhere the doctor said. The self healing and his immunity was failing as time passed. There was no sign of improvement as Raghav Rao laid like a lifeless corpse on the bed in their bedroom, hooked to a paraphernalia of ear grating noisy machines as she flitted in and out of her automated mechanism of living. 

She remembered how she had passed these three months by his side. The stocks had taken a serious dip with the news of Jayati Jewell's CEO and Owner's unfortunate accident and tragic condition. The sharks had begun circling for the prey and board of directors have been breathing down her neck. They wanted a new person to replace Raghav as the interim CEO. She had fought tooth and nail to refute that decision but it had been taken out of her hands. But Pallavi hadn't let anyone take up all the strings. Raghav Rao was not dead and his contract clearly states she was the proxy owner at his circumstantial unavailability. 

She had to take up most of the reigns of his business managing her own business side by side while looking over him. She would work from dawn till dusk continuously and would fall asleep only when she was tired enough to pass out. The nightmares came in like an unwanted ghost creeping in and out. She would wake up screaming seeing her husband die over and over and over again in her fevered delirium. Sometimes it was Mandaar who would kill him, sometimes it would be Vijay Deshmukh, sometimes it would be his former business partner turned rival Ved, sometimes it would be that harridan Krishna Rao. And she would be standing helplessly like invisible shackles had bound her in all those nightmares as she watched them peal him skin and bones all together. 

She remembered staying awake night after night just staring at his face holding his hand, caressing his hair and kissing his forehead. Praying, begging, hoping, grovelling, bargaining, cursing the Gods for this unbearable situation they had thrown her into. Initially though she was still devastated she had hope that Raghav would rise soon. But with time she has started loosing her hope and mind both. She could sense the love of her life waste away in front of her eyes and could feel herself erode with him. She had become so withdrawn and marble like that the press had given her the moniker of the Ice Queen. Nothing could ruffle her.

But only some of her closest acquaintances knew the havoc she was hiding behind that icy veneer. The storm eating her up from the centre leaving the still smoking cinders of her soul behind. 

Farhaad looked at Pallavi staring at nothing a few meters away lost in her own world and sighed. He was of the only few people who knew what she was going through. Farhaad had seen his sister in law take up the scattered reigns of his Anna's business with an iron will and put it back almost in the right track. All of this battling her own emotions, Anna's semi comatose state, and that monster Krishna Rao's interferences. Pallavi Rao was not used to dirty play and the usual nitty gritties of politics in business. Her naivety had cost them heavily at first making Krishna Rao's path clearer and clearer till suddenly one day she had flipped. It was like a switch of a button and Pallavi Raghav Rao had suddenly emerged as the new player in town. She swooped in Krishna Rao's turf and turned the tables on him so swiftly that it was almost hilarious to watch. Farhaad wished Raghav could have seen it. The look on the old hag's face was so vengefully satisfying. 

Krishna Rao had been buying shares of Jayati Jewell's through a fake alias name and had hid his own self interest so masterfully that they had never guessed anything wrong and the rot in their system had set so root deep at this stage that it was almost impossible to remove. Raghav had no idea someone had been carving their way in through his empire to topple it finally. It seemed Rao was waiting for the right opportunity to strike and he had come in surface from his underground hideout the moment he got the news of Raghav's incapacitation. He had thought now his path was clear. He had started influencing the board of directors which had resulted in the subsequent placement of an interim CEO of his choice. 

The evil man had wanted to make Jayathi Jewells a hideout and headquarters for his infamous melee of illegal businesses. Drugs, human trafficking, embezzlements and such but Pallavi Rao had cracked down upon him like the lioness she was. She had put the hammer down so hard that Farhaad had thought he could practically see the cracks on his head. Obviously he wasn't that pleased. He remembered standing behind his interim boss as she sat in Raghav's study looking like the female version of her own husband down to the arch of her eyebrows and crack of her grimly set lips and the dark fury in the pits of her eyes.

Flashback (One month ago)

"You have no idea what you are meddling into girl!"

Krishna Rao had raged as Pallavi glared down at him from her proverbial throne. He had barged in the office that evening demanding to speak with the proxy owner who had refused to put her signatures on the papers that was needed for the transfer of some lakhs of funds to his own company. 

"Calm down Mr. Rao. Wouldn't want to have stroke right now would we? Medical expenses are skyrocketing nowadays isn't it Farhaad?"

He had smiled at response. Pallavi's voice was hard and honey smooth simultaneously. She was in her element, But Krishna Rao wouldn't back down.

"Don't act coy girl!"

"Mrs. Pallavi Raghav Rao!"

"Huh?"

"My name Mr. Krishna Rao. Take my full name or else just Madam would suffice."

"You dare.."

"I dare because I can. You maybe one of the principle shareholders of the company Mr. Rao and your man maybe the CEO but I think all of you have forgotten who runs the show. Let me remind you. As I had previously shown the documented proof, I am the proxy owner of Jayati Jewells and till my husband doesn't gain his consciousness I will remain so. And as per rules no one can take any executive decision regarding the company funds except my explicit permission which I have not given."

She finished her dialogue coolly and started going through the designs of the new stock of her sarees calmly as if she didn't have one of the most dangerous men in the city fuming at her direct insult right in front of her. Krishna Rao got up smoothly and barked a warning at her in his lucid disgusting voice.

"This will cost you Mrs. Pallavi Raghav Rao. Ye jo tum hawa mein udd rahaa hain na.. jaldi zameen pe girega.. aur aisa girega ki phir uth ke chalna toh dur khadaa bhi nhi ho paega.."

"Agar aapka b grade hindi film ki c grade dialogue dena ho gaya toh kya main apna kaam karlun? Kya hain naa.. I don't have free time to waste on useless two cent worth goons."

She gave him a saccharine smile and dropped back to meticulously arrange her designs as Farhaad stifled a snort of laughter as he escorted a fuming and cursing Krishna Rao out. Who would say, Pallavi Rao didn't know how to cut some down to size. Anna would have been thrilled. 

But Farhaad was extremely worried about her as well. She had not been taking care of her health. Many nights as he had wondered sleeplessly around the empty halls of Rao Mansion he had passed by her tired form crumpled beside Raghav's bedside, crying on his arm. One day he had woken to her screams and he had rushed to the bedroom scared out of his wits. He had seen her sitting on the floor surrounded by Raghav's clothes, his wine red suit coat around her slight shoulders and his black shirt crushed to her face as she tried to breathe his lingering scent in probably. 

He had gone and sat beside her gently not shaking her neither telling her to stop. He just sat beside her in silence and after a few moments as her sobs subsided he had started narrating his various misadventures with his Anna in a loop to her. Later at night when they had laughed a lot over Raghav's silly antics and other shenanigans and he had counted it as a win to have made his bhabi finally smile at something. But as he looked at her standing so forlornly at the lone corner of their lawn he felt a huge pang in his chest.

Pallavi Rao was pushing herself to such extremes that he wondered how long would it be till she finally cracks under the tremendous mental and emotional pressure.

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Pallavi smiled brushing Raghav's hair as she regaled his still form with today's activities. How she managed to open an exhibition for the company in Bangalore, how the children enjoyed the party, how she had gone to Sharda and had talked with her for hours after so many days. 

"Tum hotein naa toh nohot mazaa ataa.. sab puch rahe the tumhaare baarein mein.. Anna nhi aaye? Anna nhi aaye.. kar rahe the.. ab main kya bolti? Bola maine unhe tumhaari tabiyat kharab hain.. but wish kiya unhone tumhe... maine ye bhi bola ki next time tum jab aaoge daant lagaye tumhe acche se..."

She broke off fearing her eyes will betray her yet again. She sighed and looked at him looking like he was just sleeping. She touched his face lightly and stroked down the planes shakily. He looked so peaceful that she thought whether Raghav even wants to return back in this world. She berated herself the next second. Of course he wants to.. he as to.. he has to return for her. She bent down and kissed his forehead lovingly.

"Happy birthday sweetheart...I love you. Wake up soon. I miss you."

"Madam woh Krishna Rao aaya hain.. niche. Maine kahaan aap busy hon but baat hi nhi.."

"It's okay Harish. Main aati hun.. tell Naidu to serve him refreshments. Give me a minute."

She wiped her tears and stood up bracing for another verbal fight mentally. She really had no strength left to play mind games today. Why couldn't he give her some rest today of all days? Pallavi saw him stand up as she went down masking her irritation for a pleasant--ish smile.

"How can I help you Mr. Rao?"

"Oh dear! Have I interrupted something..? It's your husband's birthday after all.. maybe you both were busy.. oh no! How silly of me! I forgot, how could you.. he is still in coma isn't he?"

Pallavi gritted her teeth mentally and signalled Harish to stand back as he was almost about to pounce on the cackling fiend in front enjoying their despair sadistically. Krishna Rao knew how to tap on people's weaknesses and to manipulate them. And Pallavi's weakness was candidly visible to all. She crossed her arms around her chest and tapped her foot.

"Aaj ka kissa khatam? Ya kuch aur bhi bolna hain? Please do finish it and leave. I have other matters to attend."

"Of course of course... I was just here to introduce you to the newest member of my party."

"Why would I be interested in your party politics Krishna Rao. Begone seriously. I don't have time for this nonsense."

"Ahh but my dear Mrs. Rao. You know him and I believe after we are done here you would be very much interested in my party politics."

Pallavi rolled her eyes even as a dart of apprehension stabbed her heart. Something was about to go seriously wrong in the next few moments. She could feel it like a premonition. She squinted as Krishna Rao beckoned to the man standing at the foyer as she tried to think whether she has seen this man or not.. wait that doesn't even qualify as a man, that looks like a.. a boy. Precisely a boy of maybe seventeen or eighteen. She was confused. 

"I don't know him."

"Oh you don't? hasn't our dear Raghav told you yet?"

She locked her jaw in anger now.

"Speak up Krishna Rao and no games. I'm sick of your daily dose of drama. Who is this boy and how do I even concern him."

Krishna Rao gave a pause as if he was a dramatist about to reveal his climax move and patted on the boy's shoulder. On closer inspection Pallavi did think he looked somehow familiar.  But she still couldn't gauge who he was. 

"This my dear Mrs. Rao is your brother in law... your dear husband's younger brother. Arjun Rao.."

TO BE CONTINUED

A/N:- don't worry. I haven't skipped the hospital encounter part from previous chapter. It will be shown like a flashback in the next chapter. Till then read and review plz!